The 24th installment of the Cornerstone Festival kicked off on a farm near Bushnell, Ill., yesterday. For nearly two decades, the festival operated outside the sight of mainstream culture, but Cornerstone has recently become a place to check out Christian youth culture first-hand, with the excellent books Body Piercing Saved My Life and Rapture Ready! delving into the long weekend. After the jump, some picks from this year's lineup.
More »
It's difficult to imagine, but for one night only California's state capital will turn into a place I'd actually like to visit. For the first time, Bourgeois Tagg, who released two albums in the late '80s, will reunite to play a benefit for a ailing friend featuring their original lineup. Of course, it also helps that my favorite band of all time is on the bill as well.
More »
Because I seem to be speaking in fours today, here's a four-pack of things about last night's Coachella performance by the recently reunited Verve (or is it "the recently reunited The Verve"? Grammarians?): One, they debuted a new song, which sounded very great in the context of the performance; two, as with the Battles show earlier in the day, there were people doing the hippie-noodle dance in my line of vision; three, apparently Erin "Joanie Cunningham" Moran is a big Verve fan, as there was a crowd shot midway through the band's performance of "Bittersweet Symphony" that I am 99.4% sure had the former Happy Days star as its focal point; and four, the band sounded really great and were probably the day's most pleasant surprise, with last night's set pushing me into the "I will buy tickets for its upcoming NYC show" camp if only because I was a little bummed out that they didn't play "Slide Away." [Photo: AP]
The 2008 festival glut begins this weekend in the California desert with this year's edition of Coachella, and with a little more than 72 hours to go until the gates open, the festival's organizers have released the weekend's schedule. While I've been mostly focused on my relief over the fact that I'll have something to do during Roger Waters' two and a half hour festival-closing set (thank you, Black Mountain), an eagle-eyed tipster e-mailed to point out that Sean Penn was on Sunday's bill not once, but twice, with a half-hour set in the early afternoon and a 15-minute set in the early evening. What could he be doing during his allotted time—celebrating the 26th anniversary of Fast Times At Ridgemont High? Introducing one of the artists he'd directed a music video for (maybe Jewel)? Thankfully, posters over at Coachella's message board were on the case:
More »
Latest by annkpowers: Shameless self-promotion which I promise to do hardly ever, but I really want people to read this one:
I just published a piece on Tomas Young in the LA Times...he is an amazing man. You can read it at this URL.
[www.latimes.com] more »
If you've been paying attention to Idolator lately, it's pretty clear that, thanks to some "shit, I'm old" spasm, I've been on a pretty sad enjoyable 90s nostalgia kick. Still, I wouldn't have needed the specter of aging to twist my arm to sit through VH1's 100 Greatest Songs Of The 90s, and of course I've been enjoying it in full knowledge of the final list, which hasn't stopped me from groaning with displeasure when "Ice Ice Baby" is unveiled ahead of "No Diggity," because I'm a very sick man who probably needs to drop out of American society entirely for some kind of pop cultural master cleanse. But for tonight's final installment, I believe will heed the words of commenter "orangepixistix": "I don't know if I would really say half of this list makes sense as 'top' songs for the 90s, but I do think they are the songs that probably stood out for the 90s when it comes to mainstream music.... I sort of wish certain songs were higher and certain songs even made but list but I guess I cannot complain. Every generated list, even if its based on on-line votes, will have some sort of flaw." So true. And so in lieu of kvetching about things we cannot complain about, here are five things I have learned watching this monstrosity every night this week.
More »
Latest by prolixrush: Is it just me, or is Rob Sheffield slowly morphing into a Bratz doll? more »
Here's an entire Mike Watt show from '95 with a pickup band made up of three members of the Foo Fighters (including one D. Grohl) and some guy named Vedder, running through a set of Watt originals, the expected Minutemen and fIREHOSE tunes, and a handful of covers. And Mike Watt and Eddie Vedder sincerely jamming (econo) on Erotica-era Madonna is possibly the most "1995" thing I can think of right now. [Berkeley Place]
During my daily YouTube trawl a few weeks back, I discovered the above clip of Pere Ubu performing "Breath,", their typically zonked stab at a glossed-out "pop hit," on David Sanborn's long-mothballed after-hours show Night Music. It was pretty damn weird seeing Crocus Behemoth splutter and stutter on a stage that looked more suited to G.E. Smith, and talking to a friend with fond memories of the show and a few YouTube links of his own, I found out that for a few years Sanborn delighted in screwing with the preconceptions of the late-night audience in the era of Richard Marx. It also turns out that everybody's pal, turbodouche Lorne Michaels, feels that, because he never made back his initial investment on the show, the episodes should rot in storage somewhere rather than be released on DVD. And so, in lieu of properly synced footage in stereophonic high-fidelity with bonus features and a commentary track, I present to you, after the jump, the blurry, pixilated best of Night Music (at least of what's available on YouTube).
More »
Latest by n/a: This was a show worth watching. Debbie Harry even did some backing vocals on Pere Ubu's "Waiting for Mary". I have some tapes of the show. I am trying to find a band that Sanborn introduced as performing a type more »
"How Bizarre" singer OMC and ex-warrior princess Lucy Lawless collaborate on a song that bears a way-too-strong resemblance to—we are not making this up—Milli Vanilli's "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You." [YouTube]
Glasgow's the 1990s is just one of the numerous pub-meets-club rock outfits to emerge since Franz Ferdinand broke big a few years ago; and while a song like "You're Supposed To Be My Friend," below, isn't going to teach you anything new, its up-and-down-and-up-again guitar line will stay with you through the weekend:
More »
Idolator
The 24th installment of the Cornerstone Festival kicked off on a farm near Bushnell, Ill., yesterday. For nearly two decades, the festival operated outside the sight of mainstream culture, but Cornerstone has recently become a place to check out Christian youth culture first-hand, with the excellent books Body Piercing Saved My Life and Rapture Ready! delving into the long weekend. After the jump, some picks from this year's lineup.
More »
Because I seem to be speaking in fours today, here's a four-pack of things about last night's Coachella performance by the recently reunited Verve (or is it "the recently reunited The Verve"? Grammarians?): One, they debuted a new song, which sounded very great in the context of the performance; two, as with the Battles show earlier in the day, there were people doing the hippie-noodle dance in my line of vision; three, apparently Erin "Joanie Cunningham" Moran is a big Verve fan, as there was a crowd shot midway through the band's performance of "Bittersweet Symphony" that I am 99.4% sure had the former Happy Days star as its focal point; and four, the band sounded really great and were probably the day's most pleasant surprise, with last night's set pushing me into the "I will buy tickets for its upcoming NYC show" camp if only because I was a little bummed out that they didn't play "Slide Away." [Photo: AP]
